A/N: I DO NOT own any part of the Law & Order franchise, or the rights to the song Take A Bow by Muse. I also do not own the rights to the song Nocturne in C# Minor by Frederic Chopin. Okay my lazy break is over. My chapters will be around their previous length now.

Take A Bow

"Man what's go you so happy?" Fin asked as John smiled out of the window.

"What?" John looked over at him, jerking out of the fantastic memories from the previous night. The even better part...these ones would always be there.

"You and Jodi get a little overly freaky?" he turned to John, not really wanting to know the answer, but at the same time wondering what he had to compete with.

"We..." John trailed off before chuckling. Never in a million years had he imagined doing something like that. As soon as he had taken the camera in his hands the idea just sort of came to him, the words flowing through his mouth.

He was a straight male. Naturally he enjoyed porn. Jodi was bisexual. From the times he had walked in on her with her hands down her panties he could assume she was too. But there was nothing hotter than having made his own sex tape.

"You what? We're all adults here man."

"We made a video..." John finished, unable to help himself. It was great. He was the married one but he had the best sex life out of all of them combined.

"Damn. Never thought I'd be jealous of you man." Fin chuckled, turning onto the street which held their latest case.

"What do you mean? Everyone has always been jealous of me."

"You keep thinking that man."

John smirked before opening the door as they pulled over on the curb next to the crime scene. He stepped out to find Olivia rushing up to them.

"What have we got?" John asked.

"Female, 23 by the looks of it...well by the looks of her body I'd say."

"What does that mean?" Fin asked, walking up beside John.

"Head is missing."

"What?!" they both exclaimed at the same time.

"Perp cut her head off. Here's the worst part...Melinda thinks it was done pre-motum."

"Jesus Christ." John mumbled.

"Yeah. Whoever did this, was brutal. He scraped off her fingerprints. Luckily, he left fluids."

"So he went through the trouble of cutting off her fingerprints and her head, but he left fluids. Somethin' don't add up." Fin looked around.

"Maybe he wants to get caught." John shrugged.

"Maybe." Olivia sighed before the three looked down at the bodybag being carried past them.

"You know, I really would not have expected you to be that good in bed." Trevor panted as he rolled over beside Elizabeth, resting his hands behind his head.

"Thank for being honest." Elizabeth chuckled before reaching over to grab a cigarette and lighting it with Trevor's Zippo.

"So...where do we go from here?" he asked, turning on his side and running a hand through her red hair.

"That depends. If this is a one-time thing it'll be pretty awkward during our meetings."

"You not a one-night stand kind of girl?"

"No I am. Just not when I actually like someone."

"So you actually like me?"

"You know, you're not as bright as I thought." Elizabeth chuckled, taking a drag from her Gualoise. It was one of the few exspensive pleasures she got to enjoy.

"How about we do a movie tomorrow night?"

"That sounds great." Elizabeth breathed out a plume of smoke before leaning forward and kissing him.

Wrapped up in each others lips, neither of them noticed the sound of Trevor's bedroom door creaking open.

"Excuse me."

Both of them broke apart briskly and they looked up to find Trevor's assistant walking into the room.

"What the fuck?" Elizabeth grumbled, pulling the covers up over her thin body.

"What do you need Natalie?" Trevor asked, somewhat irritable.

"I just came to pick up something, but I can see you're busy."

"Okay well....can you get out then?" Trevor asked.

"Sorry." she backed out of the door before glancing at Elizabeth and leaving.

"So what...does she live here or something now?" Elizabeth asked.

"Hell no. I've only had her over here twice I don't know what the hell she's doing here tonight."

"She has keys?"

"Only in the event that I'm on my way to the courthouse and need her to come back here and pick something up I forgot."

Elizabeth nodded, turning her head. She didn't want to say anything to Trevor, for fear of sounding stupid and paranoid but she had seen that look Natalie had on her face. The look of being caught and making something up on the spot. She wasn't here to pick anything up. She probably hadn't anticipated Trevor being here tonight.

"I hope you're not assuming what I think." he turned to her.

"What's that?" Elizabeth jerked herself from her thoughts.

"That I'm sleeping with her."

"No, don't worry. Sorry it was just a little bit of a surprise that's all."

"Yeah."

They both sat in silence for a moment before Elizabeth leaned over and stabbed her cigarette into the ashtray and turned on her side, facing Trevor directly. He slid his arms around her waist and kissed her forhead before closing his eyes, leaving Elizabeth to her thoughts. Whatever Natalie thought she was doing, Elizabeth was going to find out.

Jodi's fingers hit the keys softly as she closed her eyes, finishing out the final notes to Chopin's Nocturne in C# Minor. The song had been the first she learned after moving up to intermediate level at the age of 14, conquering Fantasie Impromptu mere weeks later and shocking her teacher beyond words.

She sighed and scooted back from the Steinway. She had spent all day on this bench, trying to figure out a song for her audition and coming up with no luck. She really did not want to have to end up playing another piece, but that might have been what it would end up coming to.

She walked around her home, massaing her temples as an impending migrane came around. Headaches were something that could no longer be avoided now, and she couldn't really take anything now because for some reason pregnant women were just supposed to just suffer through everything.

As she walked into the kitchen she found John, enjoying his daily beer and newspaper at the island bar.

"Hi honey." she went and put her hands on his shoulders before planting a kiss on his cheek.

"Hi." he muttered despondantly. Jodi walked to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of Vitamin Water before turning around and watching him. Something was obviously wrong.

She went and sat down beside him, not wanting to push it but it looked like something that needed to be talked about.

"Is...everything okay?" she asked, crossing her legs before twisting the cap off the bottle.

John looked up at the ceiling, taking the deepest of breaths she had ever heard before turning to her. Over the past few weeks he had really begun to open up to her about the crazy and distrubing things at work. While she was horrified at what he had to see everyday, she was also glad that he could talk to her about it.

"Yeah we just got the case today and...it made me think about you." he looked down at the counter.

"What do you mean?" Jodi asked, leaning forward and putting a hand atop his, hoping to comfort him.

"Well, our victim was only 23 but after looking around the entire day we found out that it was her boyfriend that killed her. Caught her in bed with a 60 something year old."

"And what does that have to do with me?"

"Boyfriend got it wrong. They weren't having sex, he was fucking raping her."

"So...how exactly did this remind you of me?"

"You know how hard it is for me to be with you sometimes. I can't stop thinking about shit like this."

Jodi sighed, frowing. She had thought they were past this, but was it really possible for John to get over it that quickly? Probably not, it was going to take quite some time.

"I'm sorry sweetheart. You know how much I love you right?" she asked, wrapping her arms around him and leaning down to kiss him.

"Yeah, I love you too." he turned his head slightly.

Jodi sat there for a moment before standing up.

"You want to be alone?" she asked.

"...Yeah." John replied feeling a little guilty. He hadn't caught the look on her face and he really didn't want to either.

Anthony walked down the hallway, pulling his keys from his pocket as he neared the door to his new apartment. He was finally out of that damn wheelchair and better yet out of custody of the feds. He had managed to wrangle immunity and government protection in exchange for naming names, and that he got.

He opened the door, pushing through and throwing his keys on the table. He had failed yet another attempt to ask out Detective Benson, although he was sure she was going to break soon. Not many women could resist him.

"Hugo?" he called out. Hugo was the nightly police detail. After a few days the two guys had really bonded into a blossoming bromance. Anthony liked him a hell of a lot more than the other guys that worked here.

There was no answer. Anthony looked around. Hugo's leather jacket was sitting on the couch. He had to be here.

He walked down the hallway, checking all of the rooms before turning into the bathroom and flipping on the lightswitch.

"Shit." he muttered.

The white porcelin bathtub was absolutely drenched with blood, the red fluid running down the sides, and inside was Hugo's muscualar form, limbs dangling.

Anthony walked in, looking down at him. There was a nice clean cut across the neck, and a pool of blood where he had spilled along with dozens of cuts and lacerations, and a nasty pool underneath his head. Someone had beat the shit out of him.

That's when he heard it.

Seemingly-quiet footsteps, footsteps that if he hadn't been trained to hear such a thing he wouldn't have.

He leaned against the frame of the doorway, hiding himself from whoever was out there. He looked down, watching the shadow approaching.

Ready.

He breathed, his fists curling.

Set.

The intruder was coming closer. Anthony could see his hands raised, hands curled around a baseball bat.

Strike.

Anthony turned the corner before grabbing him, throwing the fucker to the ground. He pinned him down before looking down into his face.

Or her face.

He recognized her. She was always lurking around somewhere whenever he had a meeting with Trevor. She was his assistant.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" he growled, putting a hand around her neck which he could break with little to no effort.

She said nothing, before taking a deep breath and gulping loudly.

He looked down at her in confusion as a smile appeared across her lips before she began to seize, her eyes rolling in the back of her head.

Anthony grabbed her head to keep her neck from breaking before digging his phone out of his pocket. It was apparent this bitch right here had come to do him in, and the hell if he'd let her sit there and get away with it.

John walked into the bedroom to find Jodi, lounging with her long legs crossed over one another.

She looked up from her sheets of blank measure bar paper and gave John and weary smile.

"Hey." he said softly, sitting down on the bed.

"Hello."

"What are you doing?"

"Just trying to think of a song for my audition. I of course would chose the most innapropiate time to have writers block."

"Sorry to hear that."

"No it's fine. How you feeling?"

"You can imagine."

"I suppose." she replied before moving a stack of paper and motioning for him to come sit down. He did so and leaned back on his arms before she scooted up, resting her head on his lap.

"John?" said softly, looking up at him.

"Yeah?" he looked down at her, running his fingers through her vibrant hair.

"Do you have any idea how much I love you?"

He paused for a moment, taking in her words and flashing back to their wedding vows, the words she had spoken that almost had him in tears. Hell he was in tears. When asked afterwards why he had kept rubbing his eyes he told everyone it was the contacts he had worn for the occasion, which was a complete lie.

"About half as much as I love you."

Jodi smiled, sitting up before John kissed her, wanting to hold her in his arms forever.

Forever and always.